Troubleshoot Power and Disk Issues

Question 1

To isolate the cause of no power, what should you do first?

Answer 1

Check that other equipment in the area is working

Question 2

a diagnostic program implemented in the system firmware that checks the hardware to ensure the components required to boot the PC are present and functioning correctly

Answer 2

power-on self-test (POST)

Question 3

What should you do to troubleshoot POST? Name the 5 steps.

Answer 3

1. Ask what has changed
2. Check cabling and connections, especially if maintenance work has just been performed on the PC
3. Check for faulty interfaces and devices
4. Check the PSU
5. Check for a faulty CPU or system firmware

Question 4

What can you do if the system firmware update failed?

Answer 4

Use the reset procedure

Question 5

An incorrectly oriented storage adapter cable or a badly seated adapter card can stop the POST from running. How would you troubleshoot this?

Answer 5

Correct any errors, reset adapter cards, and then reboot the PC.

Question 6

It is possible that a faulty adapter
card or device is halting the POST. How do you troubleshoot this?

Answer 6

Try removing one device at a time to see if this solves the problem (or remove all non-essential devices, then add them back one by one)

Question 7

What is the beep code for Normal POST—system is OK

Answer 7

1 short beep

Question 8

What is the beep code for POST error—error code shown on screen.

Answer 8

2 short beeps

Question 9

What is the beep code for Power supply, motherboard problem, or faulty onboard speaker

Answer 9

No beep

Question 10

What is the beep code for Problem with system memory modules or memory controller

Answer 10

Continuous beep

Question 11

What is the beep code for Power supply fault or motherboard problem.

Answer 11

Repeating short beeps

Question 12

What is the beep code for Motherboard problem

Answer 12

1 long, 1 short beep

Question 13

What is the beep code for Video adapter error.

Answer 13

1 long, 1 short beep

Question 14

What is the beep code for Keyboard issue (check that a key is not depressed).

Answer 14

3 long beeps

Question 15

How do you troubleshoot boot issues after you have checked that the drive is powering up?

Answer 15

• Check that data cables are not damaged and that they are correctly connected to the drive.
• If the drives are connected to a motherboard port, check that it has not been disabled by a jumper or via system setup.

Question 16

What can cause “Boot device not found”, “OS not found” or “Invalid drive specification?

Answer 16

Damage to boot sector and files, whether MBR or GPT

Question 17

typically indicates that there is a system memory fault, a hardware
device/driver fault, or corruption of operating system files

Answer 17

blue screen of death (BSOD)

Question 18

A loud or grinding noise, or any sort of clicking sound, is a sign of a what?

Answer 18

mechanical problem with the HDD

Question 19

What does no LED status indicator activity indicate?

Answer 19

the whole system might not be receiving power, or the individual disk unit could be faulty

Question 20

Constant activity, often referred to as disk thrashing, can be a sign of what?

Answer 20

not enough system RAM so that the disk is being used continually for paging (virtual memory). It could also be a sign of a faulty software process or that the system is infected with malware

Question 21

self-diagnostic program that can alert the operating system if a failure is detected

Answer 21

Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and
Reporting Technology (SMART)

Question 22

You have been servicing a computer, but when you have finished you find that it will not turn on. There was no power problem before, and you have verified that the computer is connected to a working electrical outlet. What is the most likely explanation?

Answer 22

It is most likely that one or more power connectors have not been reconnected. Check the P1 motherboard connector, a 4-pin CPU connector, and all necessary SATA or Molex device connectors. Also, the cable connecting the power button to a motherboard header could have been disconnected.

Question 23

Additional memory was installed in a user’s system, and now it will not boot. What steps would you take to resolve this job ticket?

Answer 23

Use the vendor’s system setup guide to verify that the correct memory type was installed on the system and in the correct configuration (consider whether dual-channel memory was installed in the correct slots). Check that the new memory module is seated properly in its slot. Try swapping memory around in the memory slots.

Question 24

You are trying to install Windows from the setup disc, but the computer will not boot from the
DVD. What should you do?

Answer 24

Check that the boot order in system setup is set correctly. If the boot order is correct, check that the disc
is not dirty or scratched. If the disc loads in another computer, check that the optical drive data and power cables are connected.

Question 25

Following a power cut, a user reports that their computer will not boot. The message “BCD missing” is shown on the screen. The computer does not store data that needs to be backed up. What is the best first step to try to resolve the issue?

Answer 25

Use a system recovery disk to try to repair the disk drive’s boot information.

Question 26

A user reports that there is a loud clicking noise when she tries to save a file. What should be your first troubleshooting step?

Answer 26

Determine whether a data backup has been made. If not, try to make one.

Question 27

You receive a support call from a user of one of the company’s computer-aided design (CAD) workstations. The user reports that a notification “RAID utility reports that the volume is degraded” is being displayed. A recent backup has been made. What should you do to try to restore the array?

Answer 27

A degraded volume is still working but has lost one of its disks. In most RAID configurations, another disk failure would cause the volume to fail, so you should add a new disk as soon as possible (though do note that rebuilding the array will reduce performance).

Question 28

A user reports hearing noises from the hard disk—does this indicate it is failing and should be replaced?

Answer 28

Not necessarily. Hard disks do make noises, but they are not all indicators of a problem. Question the user to find out what sort of noises are occurring or inspect the system yourself.